Hazards of healthy living: bottled water and salad vegetables as risk factors for Campylobacter infection

Campylobacter is the most common cause of bacterial gastroenteritis worldwide, yet the etiology of this infection remains only partly explained. In a retrospective cohort study, we compared 213 sporadic campylobacter case-patients with 1,144 patients with negative fecal samples. Information was obta...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Emerging infectious diseases 2003-10, Vol.9 (10), p.1219-1225
Main Authors: Evans, Meirion R, Ribeiro, C Donald, Salmon, Roland L
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adolescent
Adult
Aged
Aged, 80 and over
Animals
Campylobacter
Campylobacter Infections - etiology
Case-Control Studies
Causes of
Child
Child, Preschool
Female
Food Microbiology
Foodborne Diseases - etiology
Gastroenteritis
Gastroenteritis - etiology
Humans
Infant
Infant, Newborn
Male
Middle Aged
Public Health
Risk Factors
United Kingdom
Vegetables - microbiology
Wales
Water Microbiology
Water Supply
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Campylobacter is the most common cause of bacterial gastroenteritis worldwide, yet the etiology of this infection remains only partly explained. In a retrospective cohort study, we compared 213 sporadic campylobacter case-patients with 1,144 patients with negative fecal samples. Information was obtained on food history, animal contact, foreign travel, leisure activities, medical conditions, and medication use. Eating chicken, eating food from a fried chicken outlet, eating salad vegetables, drinking bottled water, and direct contact with cows or calves were all independently associated with infection. The population-attributable fractions for these risk factors explained nearly 70% of sporadic campylobacter infections. Eating chicken is a well-established risk factor, but consuming salad and bottled water are not. The association with salad may be explained by cross-contamination of food within the home, but the possibility that natural mineral water is a risk factor for campylobacter infection could have wide public health implications.
ISSN:1080-6040
1080-6059
DOI:10.3201/eid0910.020823